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Thessaloniki - Skopje
E.Route : Thessaloniki-Skopje : ETD ------- : ETA ------ : Dist. ------
A.Route : Thessaloniki-Skopje : ATD 1540 : ATA 2020* : Dist. 136 m.
- Depart Thessaloniki 1540
- 1552 - 1603 Shop/welding stop
- 1633 - 1646 Fruit stop
- 1715 - 1727 Fuel stop
- 1745 - 1843 Frontier clearance
- 2020 - 2045 Stop in Titov Veles
- Arrive camp nr. Skopje 2120*
Est.A.Spd -------- : Gross A.Spd 23.86 mph : Net.A,Spd. 36.76 mph
Stop time 1:59 hr : Speedo TD 15736 : Speedo TA 15872
Comment : A day livened by other considerations - entertaining drive to the frontier, with peasants throwing fish to us and other diversions, but a distinctly cold and dewey campsite at the end of it. An equally entertaining promenade in Titov Veles.
Jim Lindsay's diary:
1 October
In daylight our camp site turned out to be a nice little stretch of tussocky dunes.
Just below us on the beach were some beached fishing boats that had been out catching
octopus using huge flare lamps to lure them to the surface. Sandra chatted to the
fishermen and was rewarded with a glimpse of a bucketful of octopus.
We went into Thessaloniki and once again some people tried to sell blood. The Greek
system apparently was that the relatives of people needing blood would wait around
hospitals and clinics for someone to come along ready to sell a litre of the
appropriate type, and then negotiate with them, and the rules were evidently less
strict. I think Tony was rejected on the basis of low blood pressure but Jim Moyes
managed to see 600 drachma worth.
I spent the afternoon mooching around and writing on the promenade. There was a little
park full of children playing under the eyes of a line of men who looked like elderly
pederasts but could have been fond grandfathers.
When we assembled back at the coach, there was another replay of the argument about
leaving the latecomers behind, but one of them this time was Iona, who was
indispensible, so they got away with it.
There was also a growing issue about R and the hash which we had found out was what he
had bought in fair bulk at Landi Kotal. I'm sure that we were all in favour of living
and letting live, but the word was that we could expect a rigorous search by British
Customs and their sniffer dogs when we reached Dover. While we did not want to be
grasses, he had alienated most of us and we did not want him to take us for a ride.
We did not know whether the stash was in his own bag or stowed somewhere in the
communal property, but it seemed to most of us that we were going to have problems
unless he disposed of it all or took his chances going independently through Customs.
Since we had no idea how much he had, we could only guess how much more might still
be hidden somewhere in the onboard chaos even if he chose to dispose of some of it in
front of all of us. Since he had been hinting at his cleverness in getting it but
then denying that he had any, there was no licit way of doing what would have been
most satisfactory, i.e. leaving him and his kitbag to find their own way home. We
heard that John Bell of Glasgow had made some very grim threats about what he would
do to anyone in his contingent who put the rest of them in jeopardy, but Edinburgh
was not led in this way. Trying to find a fair solution, Gordon proposed that anyone
with hash should get rid of what they had or face being denounced to the Yugoslav
Customs, but this had snags. He could conceal what he had and land us all in trouble,
particularly if his own possessions were found to be clear. And we did not want
Edinburgh or Comex as a whole to get the bad publicity.
What happened at this point is that one or two of the girls produced small amounts and
disposed of them, but R denied having any. However we noticed that at every frontier
check after that, he stuck to Gordon like glue in case he was shopped.
As for the rest of the journey, we stopped for a little welding - I think the tap on
our Afghan water-tank had to be fixed - and up in the hills a friendly peasant driving
a tractor thrust a large fish into the driver's hands. There was a shop-stop where
some optimist plied the girls with free grapes.
We got through Customs in daylight, and then and the stretch where the mysterious
fires had been burning on the outward journey. By the time we got to Titov Veles, it
was dusk and promenade time, and we edged through the cheerful mob. There was a bunch
of happy men stumbling in line down the street with embroidered cushions clasped to
their heads. I did not know if this was some local custom or just a drunken
improvisation.
Yugoslav regulations did not permit roadside camping so we ended up overnighting in a
formal campsite at Skopje. It was more or less empty apart from us but we still
managed to block the toilets within minutes. It was a fiercely cold night and as
before we spread the folded tent over the sleeping bags to give us a little more
warmth.
